Multiple-expansion steam-engine.



H LENTZ.

MULTIPLE EXPANSION STEAM ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19. 1914.

, 1,224,939.. Patented May 8,1917.

WITNESSES:

ATTORNEY m: mmms PETERS c0. PHOTO-unto. \usnmu mm. o c,

nneo LENTZ, or riatnnsen, NEAR BERLIN, GERMANY.

-MULTIPLE-EXPANSION STEAM-ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 8, 1917.

Application filed October 19, 1914. Serial No. 867,518.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HUGO Lnn'rz, a cit-izen of the German Empire, and residing at Halensee, near Berlin, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Multiple-Expansion Steam-Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved arrangement of the casings containing the distributing valves, and of the receivers of such multiple expansion steam engines as com prise one high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders.

A primary object of my invention is to provide that the high-pressure exhaust can be directly connected with the low-pressure inlet without making use of a roundabout passage way, and that when the highpressure exhaust valve opens the steam can flow along the shortest path to both lowpressure cylinders at the same time. I attain this end by arranging the inlet and exhaust valve casing of the high-pressurecylinder in a plane at right-angles to the plane of the other valve casing. I i

Further, I connect all the exhaust ports directly to receivers which are formed by' longitudinal passages cast only on to the low-pressure cylinders on the side nearest the high-pressure cylinder; the high-pressure cylinder remains perfectly free from such longitudinal passages.

Owing to this arrangement of the valve casings and receivers not only are special passage-ways avoided, but the steam is guided very favorably because the steam flowing out of the high-pressure cylinder can flow at once along the shortest path and, consequently, without material loss due to cooling directly into both low-pressure cylinders at the two sides. Further, this arrangement enables the valves to be driven by very suitable valve gear. The arrangement of the receivers only at the low-pressure cylinders in combination with the passages branching off from the highpressure exhaust valve also results in the additional advantage that the losses due to cooling and radiation are reduced to a minimum. The high-pressure cylinder can expand freely longitudinally because the middle portion of it can be made as a smooth tube without longitudinally extending attached parts. As regards the loW- pressure cylinder no difiiculty is caused by the receiver passages being cast on to it because the low-pressure cylinder itself has a lower temperature and, in consequence of its expanding less, stresses in the cast-ing are not to be feared as much as if thereceiver passages were cast on the high-pressure cylinder.

To these ends my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of parts described hereinafter and pointed out in the claims.

One illustrative embodiment of my invention. and a modification thereof are represented by way of example in the accompai'iying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a side elevation showing the individual "cylinder castings,

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on the line 2-2 in Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section showing a modified arrangement of the valve casing on the high-pressure cylinder.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2 a low-pressure cylinder Z) is arranged on each side of the high-pressure cylinder a. The valve casings containing the distributing valves are arranged atthe ends of these cylinders, the inlet valve casings c of the highpressure cylinder a being located on the one side of the middle plane common to all the cylinders, while the exhaust valve casings (Z of the high-pressure cylinder a and the valve casings z of the low-pressure cylinders b are on the'ot-her side. The exhaust valve casings cl of the high-pressure cylinder are connected on both sides by way of passages f and hollow spacing blocks 9 with receivers h cast on the low-pressure cylinders 6. These receivers are longitudinal passages which connect together the interiors of the valve casings mounted on the ends of the lowpressure cylinders. Exhaust ports m are provided. inaddition, for the exhaust steam on the valve casings i.

Seats 0 for the inlet valves are provided in the inlet valve casings c. These'inlet valves are preferably actuated by means of a' separate cam shaft, not shown, mounted in the middle of the high-pressure cylinder. Further, seats cl for the high-pressure exhaust valves are provided in the valve casings (Z, and seats k for the low-pressure inlet valves and seats Z for the low-pressure exhaust valves are provided in the valve casings These valves are preferably actuated by separate cam shafts, not shown,

which are located in the middle of the cylinders but contrary to the high'pressure cam shaft.

The modification re nj'esented in Fig. 3 differs from that described above only in the inlet and exhaust valve casings 0 and (Z being arranged not on different sides of the high-pressure cylinder, but close together. When the valve seat 0 is open and the valve seat (Z is closed live steam flows into the higlrpressure cylinder and, after partially expanding, leaves it through the now open valve seat (1 (the valve seat 0 being closed) and flows through the passages toward both sides into the receivers east on the lowpressure cylimjlers.

I claim 1. In a multiple expansion steam engine, the combination of a highpressure cylinder and two low-pressure cylinders adjacent thereto, said low-pressure cylinders having inlet and exhaust valve casings all arranged in one plane, and said high-pressure cylin der having inlet and exhaust valve casings arranged in a plane substantially at right angles to the first-named plane, the said exhaust valve casing of the high-pressure cylinder being substantially in the plane of the valve casings of the low-pressure cylinders and being connected directly to the inlet valve casings of the said low-pressure cylinders, whereby the steam has a continuous direction of How in the high-pressure cylinder and the high-pressure exhaust steam can flow along the shortest path directly to both low-pressure cylinders at the same time and have a continuous direction of flow therein, substantially as described.

2. In a multiple expansion steam engine, the combination of a high-pressure cylinder and two low-pressure cylinders adjacent thereto, inlet and exhaust valve casings all arranged in one plane on the low-pressure cylinders, and inlet and exhaust valve casings arranged on the high-pressure cylinder in a plane substantially at right angles to the first-named plane, the exhaust valve casing on the high-pressure cylinder being substantially in the first-named plane, and receivers connected directly between the outlets of the exhaust valve casing on the high pressure cylinder and the inlets of the inlet valve asings on the low-pressure cylinders, said receivers being formed by longitudinal passages cast only onto the loW-pressurecylinders on the sides thereof adjacent the high-pressure cylinder, substantially as described.-

3. In a multiple expansion steam engine, the combination of a l1lgl1-P1SSL1T6 cylinder and two low=pressure cylinders adjacent thereto, inlet and exhaust valve casings on the low-pressure cylinders all. arranged in one plane, and inlet and exhaust valve cas' ings arranged on opposite sides of the highpressure cylinder in-a plane substantially at right angles to the first-named plane, the exhaust valve of the higlrpressure cylinder being substantially in the first-named plane, the arrangement being such that the highpressure exhaust steam can flow directly to the low-pressure inlets and when the highpressure exhaust is open steam can flow along the shortest path to both low-pressure cylinders at the same time, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I aiiix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

HUGO LENTZ.

Witnesses HENRY I-IAsrnR, WoLonMAR HAUPT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

